Gloucester Etymology
by Russell Grant
Let's start at the very beginning……
Around 5000 years ago (give or take a century) a couple of Celts; British to the Romans, you and me (Welsh to the Saxons) are foraging in virgin territory in what we now know as the Vale of Gloucester. From a distance they see a river, as they search for a place to ford it one exclaims “Gloyw!” which in the British tongue means as it still does today (in Welsh) bright and shiny.
They had reached where the River Severn parts into three streams, or back in those days perhaps even more; maybe sunlight was rippling and glittering on the waters or perhaps some shiny object magnified in the waters catching the sun's rays? Anyway whatever caught their eye from that moment on it became known as the bright or shiny place.
There you have the first part of the place name of GLOUcester . Like all place names a journey had begun. But there is no evidence of a British village or place having been built there where the local population lived.
Around AD 48/49 the Roman 20 th Legion built a fortress at Kingsholm not far from an iron-age settlement they took the local name and from it GLEVUM was born, corrupted by the Latin lingo. It was in the reign of Emperor Marcus Cocceius Nerva AD 96/98 that in AD 97 Gloucester become a Colonia the highest ranking Roman city and named Colonia Nervia(na) Glevensium; shortened to GLEVUM. A Colonia was a sought-after Roman retirement city for old veterans or soldiers needing some R & R from being on duty probably at the border region of the British Kingdom of Gwent (Monmouthshire) and the Roman province of Britannia .
Some scholars suggest the name refers to ‘famous, splendid or noble place' perhaps due to the fort then occupying the area we call Kingsholm today: holm is Nordic and Germanic for a river island or plain by a river, hey presto we have the Isle of Alney now a nature reserve. Excavations show evidence the Romans may have built up to five bridges to cross the many partings of the Severn .
The Brits had a word for forts and castles – CAER as in Caernarfon (the fort of Arfon) - Caergloyw – or to be very British CaerLoyw, as the ‘g' is dropped due to mutation: the fort at the bright place.
Nearly every clever school kid knows a town name ending in ‘caster' or ‘ chester ' has some connexion with the Roman occupation; as Caer-Gloyw grew it was to become the place of a great Roman colony and fortress as the local British called it.
Following the Romans the local Mercians (Anglo Saxons) had their say by combining the British (Gloyw) and the description of the Roman fort with their own language ( chester alters to the simpler cester – taken from the Latin castra: a camp) and out came Gloucester ; the Roman fort at the bright, shiny place!
Mind you it was only at the beginning of the 9 th century the city's name written as GLOECESTER and at a later date at the turn of the century GLEAWAN CEASTER. This seems to be a wholesale invasion of the Anglo Saxons who misinterpreted the British Gloyw and tried to highjack the whole name with their name Gleaw, they might look similar but the meaning – wise or prudent – is miles off the mark. It is so easy to get sucked into such corruptions.
Although the third stream has now disappeared, go for a walk by the River Severn or as us Brits would call it Afon Safren and from AD 550 Hafren. According to British legend Sabrina was the name of a princess who was drowned in the Safren or Severn . Was the river named after her or vice versa – it is also said Sabrina was a British goddess who lived there. Take your map and imagine what your British ancestors first saw all those centuries ago and gives GLOUCESTER its name today; the BRIGHT city.
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